Project Simplify - Week 4 Results

I'm checking in for a quick post tonight to share partial results of my Project Simplify hot spot #4 clean up.  As I said on Monday, I've done a fair amount of decluttering and reorganizing in my kitchen over the past couple of months, but there have been a few lingering areas that I either haven't dealt with or that get used often enough that regular attention is needed.  One of the biggest if-I-don't-look-at-it-I-can-pretend-its-not-there spots was this cabinet that I originally designated for cleaning supplies.  After having children I moved all of my cleaners - whether all natural or the equivalent of toxic waste - up high so that little hands could not get into them.  As you can see from my before photo, a whole lot of stuff got jammed in there around those cleaning supplies.

Junk drawers are bad enough, but a junk cabinet is just over the top!

Here is what my formerly overflowing cabinet shelves look like now.

It might be hard to see from this photo, but I got to indulge in my love of label making by whipping up some labels for certain shelves/sections.  How did I end up with so many bottles of bug spray and sunblock (bottom right hand corner)?  Oh yes...I just need to refer to my before photo for an explanation.

To get my cabinet to this point I got rid of some things, but mostly I moved things to areas that were more sensible.  We somehow ended up with a LOT of water balloons.  I limited the number of balloons that we kept to what would fit into a clear plastic storage container (recently purged from the kitchen) and then moved them out to the garage for easy access once the summer heat is upon us.  I moved the pet care products that I don't need on a regular basis to my laundry room where I keep the rest of their "stuff".  And so on and so on.  I can now actually get to everything in this cabinet and I'm not worried about causing an avalanche whenever I open the door.

I still have more work to do in my pantry and refrigerator.  Mostly I just need to clean shelves, etc. because Running Man cleared out any science experiments from the fridge last week and - honestly - I really need to go the grocery store so there's not that much in there.  Just for fun, here's a little look at some of what came out of my kitchen during a recent purge.

Yes - that's all vintage Pyrex.  Not to worry, I still have plenty lurking around my kitchen!

I'm linking up to Tsh's results post over at Simple Mom...stop on by to be inspired by everyone's hard work!

"Even though you can't have your home exactly the way you'd like, just doing something is important.  Imagine if you never cleaned or organized anything at all - your home would implode from the disaster. Your work has meaning.  Your family needs you."  ~Tsh Oxenreider